Chasing the High (Steph’s Review)

Title: Chasing the HighAuthor: Beth MichelePublisher: Self-PublishedRelease Date: October 17, 2016Genre(s): Contemporary RomancePage Count: There are 3297 locations on Kindle for iPadReviewed by: StephHeat Level:3.5 flames out of 5Rating:4.75 stars out of 5Blurb:

Left at the altar. Dumped. Abandoned. Jilted.

That only happened in books. Fictional disasters like the kind I wrote. It wasn’t supposed to happen to me, Sam Stone. My life was supposed to be orderly. Organized. Perfect.

But I had no control over my fiancé’s decision to leave me.

What better place to be alone while nursing my broken heart than in paradise, right? Two weeks of sandy beaches and tranquil waters to quietly rethink my life.

That’s what I thought anyway—until Drew Mariano came along and shook everything up. He shook me up.

He made me forget myself. And that was good.

He made me want to take chances. And that was hard.

He made me feel high on life. And that was amazing.

But I was afraid…the higher I got…

the harder

I was going

to fall…

OMG, this book! To be honest I really don’t know what I was expecting from this book, but WOW was it good. Right from the start I was sucked in. Both MC’s are snarky and sadly damaged in their own way.

First there is Sam. He comes from an accepting affluent family. Unfortunately, in high school they were not so tolerant. Here he suffered emotional and physical pain, and from this he developed anxiety and OCD. For goodness sakes this man has a leather bracelet he “uses” to center himself.

Then there is Drew. Suffering the loss of his mother at fourteen due to cancer and a father that emotionally and physically abused him; not accepting him for who he is. He then copes the best way he can and that is to have copious amounts of meaningless sex.

Both are running away from hurt trying to find even ground in Hawaii. On the flight over they happen to cross paths, however their start was not so great. Understandably so given their personalities and reasons for running to Hawaii in the first place.

Let me just say the author does a wonderful job making my heart ache for these two broken men. As they become friends they seem to tiptoe around one another, but eventually both men start having intense feelings for one another. However, the baggage that weighs heavily on both characters keeps them apart most of the time. Yet, when they are together you can see that the Drew helps Sam become more adventurous and Sam gives Drew hope that someone like him can be loved.

In the end, I was extremely happy with the HEA that the author wrote for Sam and Drew. It fit them both perfectly. This book is a great start into MM Romance for Beth Michele, and I cannot wait to see what else she has in store for us in the future.

Author

Steph

I love reading books about boys who love other boys <3. Sometimes there is a HEA or HFN, but sometimes it just is. Yes, I love all outcomes even it is not what I hoped for. We all need a good cry from time to time. As you can probably can tell, I love cliffhangers as well. Yeah, I am one of those people :) I read a variety of genres, whether it is dark/taboo, historical, shifters, GFY, SciFi, mysteries/thrillers; I love it all.